


Hard Choices

by Stakebait



Series: Uncovered and other stories [8]
Category: White Collar
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-23 22:37:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9684371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stakebait/pseuds/Stakebait
Summary: Peter has discovered a better way than baseball and deviled ham to torment Neal on a stakeout.





	

The car was cold, but Neal had his own ways of keeping warm—and not falling asleep. Neal was privately convinced that the suspect had fallen asleep himself in front of the TV hours ago, but Jones and Diana would not be there to relieve them for at least another hour. 

"Do you still have the clothes you wore to pretend to be me?" he asked Peter.

"Probably, somewhere," Peter responded. "I'll look. So even Neal Caffrey wants to fuck Neal Caffrey?" He added teasingly.

Neal refrained from mentioning that he'd had more than enough sex with himself in prison. 

"Not Neal Caffrey," he said instead. "Peter Burke, international cat burglar. You looked...dangerous." The way he lingered over the word, he might as well have said 'delicious.' "I spent that whole day terrified for you—and hard as a rock."

"Wow, I was oblivious," said Peter ruefully.

"A little," Neal admitted, "but it was cute."

"Cute, huh? I'd rather be dangerous."

"Too bad," Neal informed him cheerfully, "you're stuck being both."

"So do I get to fuck you in _your_ cat burglar outfit?" Peter startled Neal by asking.

"Do you want to?" Neal was a little shocked. Considering how heavy handed Peter came down on the moral messaging sometimes, he had assumed Peter wouldn't be turned on by his dark side. And that alone was a rookie mistake that showed how much Peter had clouded his mind—it wasn't news to Neal Caffrey that taboos were often the hottest fantasies of all.

Peter licked his lips and nodded. "I want you," he said, "to break into my house."

Neal winced internally—at least he hoped it was only internal—remembering the last time he'd broken into Peter's house and how close he'd come to throwing away everything that mattered. But Peter didn't know about that and with luck, he never would.

"Only if you promise to catch me," said Neal, the words coming out a little more heartfelt and less teasing than he'd intended.

"Always," said Peter, and took his hand where it lay on the seat between them.

Neal knew Peter meant both sides of that promise—the sappy sweet side and the implacable arm of justice part. What he didn't know was why both made him feel safe.

"You know, Peter, they don't let the arresting officer have conjugal visits," he commented, following that thought to what was, for him, the logical conclusion.

"They might," said Peter, "if I bribed the guards."

Neal made an impatient gesture. "I'll bribe them. I'm better at it. And just in case you happen to find the one honest guard in the whole system, you can't have that on your record."

"Are we seriously figuring out how to keep fucking after I send you back to prison?" Peter demanded.

Neal shrugged. "It never hurts to have a contingency plan."

"Thanks, Mozzie," Peter said dryly. "That's not what I meant. Would you still want to?"

Neal stared at him as if he'd grown a second head. "Of course," he said, stating the, to him, obvious. "You've done it before and here I am."

"That's different," Peter objected. "We weren't together then."

"It's really not," Neal assured him, gripping his hand. "Peter, you told me you know who I am and that's what you want. Well, right back at you. If I put you in a position where you have to choose, that's on me, and I knew what I was getting into. I would just be sorry to put you through that. You could let someone else arrest me?"

"No I fucking could not!" Peter responded.

For some reason, Neal found that comforting.

"Would you still want to? After I let you down like that?" Neal asked, not sure he really wanted the answer but knowing he would lie awake wondering if he didn't ask.

Peter thought it over for a long minute, giving Neal time to regret every one of his life choices, and asking the question most of all.

"Yes," he decided, and Neal breathed again, "though it might take a while."

"I'll wait," said Neal.

"As long as you don't kill anyone," Peter added.

"Peter, the only way I'm killing anyone is if they're trying to kill you."

Peter growled low in his throat, a sound that never failed to heat Neal's blood.

"Caffrey, don't make me send you back to prison. I need you here."

In all his life, Neal couldn't remember anyone saying they needed him before. Wanted him, often. Loved him, even, sometimes. But not that.

"To suck your cock?" Neal attempted archness to cover the treacherous melting feeling in his chest, but it didn't really come off.

"To watch my back," said Peter seriously.

That melted pile of goo in the middle of Neal's chest was urging him to use words like forever, but Neal just barely stopped himself. He never wanted to make a promise to Peter that he hadn't first thought through in cold calculating detail—which meant, away from Peter's distracting presence. Because he never wanted to make a promise to Peter that he wasn't prepared to keep, or die trying.

"I always do," he settled for saying.

"I said my back, not my ass," Peter teased.

"You're always telling me to multitask," Neal reminded him. "I can do both."

"So, the next time Elizabeth's away... don't turn off the alarm system," Neal added, reverting to the part of this conversation he knew how to handle.

"Are you kidding? I'll add extras. I know how much you like a challenge."

“And if I beat them all?”

“Then I guess,” said Peter, “you get to take what you came for.” 

Neal's brain grounds its gears. Peter couldn't possibly mean....

“You've been casing it long enough,” Peter added.

Okay, maybe he did mean that.

“And if you tell me I'm straight again I'm going to spank you with a goddamned dictionary,” Peter added.

Neal laughed. “Tempting, but no. I got that part. Doesn't mean you have to...”

“Bend over for you? I know. I want to. You have a gorgeous cock. I want it inside me.”

“Do you say this shit when you know I can't touch you just to make my brain leak out my ears?” Neal demanded.

“Yes,” Peter admitted cheerfully.

“I hate you,” Neal said petulantly.

“Does that mean you don't want to fuck me?”

“You know it doesn't. Asshole. Peter, it's not that easy. Especially the first time.”

“I know,” said Peter. “I bought a book. And I've been practicing.”

Peter applying his thorough research skills to their sex life never failed to get Neal hard. Not that he'd needed any more help.

“If we have to chase this guy,” said Neal in a near whimper. “I don't know how I'm gonna run like this.” 

“Does that mean I shouldn't make you wear a cock ring to our next stakeout?”

Neal considered. “Well, not a metal one.”

“They make silicone,” Peter said, proving he'd been researching again.

“When is Elizabeth going away?” Neal asked.

“Not for three weeks,” Peter said, sounding a little regretful. “Gives me time to plan.”

“Me too,” Neal agreed.

“Remember, only if you make it into my room without waking me up,” Peter said.

“And if I don't?” Neal asked.

“Then I catch you and punish you.” Peter studied Neal's face. “You can't figure out which you want to have happen, can you?”

“Is both an option?” Neal asked.

“No,” said Peter. “At least, not that night. Life,” he added in a mock-serious tone, “is about making the hard choices.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks as always to Dotfic for beta reading. Any remaining errors, as always, are my own.
> 
> White Collar was created by Jeff Eastin and aired on the USA Network. No profit has been or will be generated by this transformative work.


End file.
